by Gary Weston
‘You missed,’ said Casey.
‘Wait a second…’
The furry thing rocked backwards and fell dead with a thump to the ground. Raven collected it and held it up by its tail.
‘Dinner. I caught it, you cook it.’
Casey snatched it off him. One hour later, they were full.
‘Nothing like chicken or rabbit,’ said Raven, with a belch.
Casey picked something out of her teeth. ‘I ate a wild pig, once. Can’t recall which planet. Sort of reminds me of that.’ She stood up. ‘Let’s go kill some runners.’
Chapter 92
Casey had been correct. The drixolate runners were loading the ship. Even more of the plastic wrapped cubes were being carried from the cave, straight onto the ship.
‘Jeez. They’ve been busy,’ said Raven.
‘None are carrying weapons. They’re all too busy loading the ship.’
Raven scoured the scene. ‘I see a few rifles on that rock by the cave. We’d never get to them.’
‘There must be more inside the ship or maybe the processing plant.’
Raven agreed. ‘We’ll never make it to the ship. I think we can get in the greenhouse without being seen. I just need to get my hands on a rifle.’
‘I agree. But we’d better hurry. Another hour or so, they’ll be taking off.’
They wasted no time in scrambling down the bank to the side of the broken greenhouse, while the runners were distracted loading the ship. They hurried along between the paths to the door that led to the living quarters and sealed off drixolate processing plant. The latest cubes were stacked on top of one another outside the processing plant doors. Four laser rifles were temptingly leaning against the wall next to the cubes. The sealed doors were to their left, the mouth of the cave one hundred yards to their right. Raven was about to make a grab for the weapons. They had to dodge back into the greenhouse when they heard footsteps entering the cave. They stood either side of the door, holding their breaths, hearing the footsteps come closer.
‘Is this the last of it?’ a man called out.
‘One more to come. Be another five minutes, then we’re all done.’
They heard the men lifting the cubes and carrying them back to the ship. Raven and Casey knew they had just a minute to grab the guns, or to call it off and head back to hide until the ship took off. Raven took hold of the door handle, wrenched it open and raced to the guns. Casey was right behind him. They picked up two rifles each. The processing plant door swung open and a man in a bio-suit carried out a cube. The blast from the laser pierced the visor, drilled a hole through the man’s skull, then exited the back of the helmet. The man buckled to his knees, already dead, then fell face down.
Casey took out the two runners behind him, a woman with a shot to her heart, the other shot making a neat hole in a man’s neck. Raven made sure with a head shot. He checked the processing plant. A man was cowering behind the equipment, but his right leg was exposed. Raven sliced it off below the knee, then ended the runner’s career prospects.
‘Hold it.’
Raven swivelled around, his weapon ready, only to find Casey with the tip of a rifle aimed at her head.
‘Drop the gun, or your girlfriend dies.’
Chapter 93
With their hands above their heads, Raven and Casey were marched outside. The other runners stopped their loading and stared at the captives.
‘It looks as if we have had visitors, people,’ said Fritz.
‘Wipe them out, then,’ called out one man.
‘Not yet,’ said Corey. ‘They’re coming with us. We run into the DSI, they’ll be insurance.’
Raven said, ‘They won’t think twice about us to blow you away.’
‘You, perhaps,’ said Corey. ‘I’m thinking not the woman. She’s not DSI.’
‘I could be,’ said Casey.
Raven said, ‘They know you’re not. They have an insider in the DSI.’
‘Damn.’
‘Ok. Enough of the pleasant banter,’ said Fritz. ‘On the ship.’
The tip of the rifle to Casey’s head was all the incentive they needed to comply. They went up the cargo-hold ramp. Fritz pointed to three men. ‘You three. Get these pair secure and watch them every second. Either of them even farts too loud, kill the agent.’
One man found some spare webbing that was used to secure the cargo and tied Raven and Casey securely to some heavy-gauge internal pipework. From the look on the runner’s face, Raven was sure his preference would be a swift execution with the bodies dumped unceremoniously before taking off. Raven remained compliant as he was bound hand and foot. Casey was less willing to be trussed up, wriggling and kicking out.
‘Karma. Don’t give him the excuse to hurt you.’
The internal speakers hissed, ‘Buckle up. Two minutes to lift off.’
The huge ramp closed up, sealing them in. The ship was pressurised and the three men with the rifles buckled up, all three glaring at the DSI agent and the pilot. It was a smooth take off. One half orbit of the planet, then they were out of the atmosphere, on their way…somewhere.
Chapter 94
‘Buckle up. Buckle up. Orbiting the planet, searching for signs of life. Cannon shooter stand by.’
‘Standing by.’
‘Negative to signs of life. Cannon shooter, stand down.’
‘Standing down.’
‘Landing one minute. Welcome to Foregone.’
General Millet stopped Joy Dainty leaving her seat. ‘You stay on the ship until I say otherwise, Miss Dainty.’
It was a smooth and perfect landing of the four DSI ships. Lined up close to the wrecked greenhouse and the cave, the DSI military officers, armed to the max, stormed down the ramps, ready to shoot anything that moved. Nothing did.
‘Somebody made some damn awful mess of the greenhouses, General,’ said Captain Armstrong, her eyes everywhere at once. ‘I’d say Casey and Raven have been kinda hands on.’
‘It looks like we got here just too late,’ grunted Millet. ‘Let’s take a look inside. Lieutenant Croxfort. Gas grenades into the cave, if you please.’
Croxfort, covered by two officers, ran with the gas grenade launcher and fired three knock-out gas grenades into the cave. A thick brown cloud of gas bellowed out, and they waited two minutes for it to clear. It was highly possible that somebody in a suit could still be waiting to slug it out with the DSI, so the officers entered cautiously, ready to kill. Three minutes later, Croxfort came out and removed his helmet.
‘Three dead in there, Sir. Laser shot. One female, two male.’
‘Raven and Casey?’
‘No, Sir. Runners.’
Millet removed his helmet, which was a signal for the others to do the same. ‘Raven and Casey have been busy.’
‘Sir,’ said Armstrong. ‘Could Raven and Casey be out here alive somewhere?’
‘No, Shorty. The ship did a sweep before we landed. Nothing human alive out here.’
Armstrong spat at the ground. ‘Crap. Must be dead somewhere.’
‘If they are, we’ll probably never find them,’ said Croxfort.
‘There is another possibility,’ said Millet, pointing to the sky. ‘They’re alive in the runners’ ship.’
‘If you don’t mind, General,’ said Armstrong, ‘I’ll hang onto that idea. Somebody has to tell Joy Dainty, and I’d at least like to tell her we think Raven and Casey are still alive.’
‘Ok, Shorty. She can come off the ship. Only suggest we think they’re on that ship. No more than that. I don’t want to build her hopes up until we know for sure either way.’
Armstrong nodded and went up the ramp to give Joy Dainty the news. Four minutes later, a grim faced Joy walked down the ramp with Armstrong.
Millet said, ‘Sorry we can’t be more positive than that, Miss Dainty.’
‘I have to hang onto that.’ Joy looked up at the sky. ‘They could be anywhere.’
‘That’s about the size of it,’ said M
illet, with a sigh. ‘I’ll radio Boss. Find out what he wants us to do. Shorty. Get a flame-thrower on those plants. Destroy the processing equipment. Once you’ve done that, one beer each. Lieutenant. The weather’s fine. Organise a feed out here.’
‘Yes, Sir. What about the three bodies?’
‘They don’t deserve a burial. Throw them on the plants. They can burn together. Oh. And torch everything inside. Burn any residue. Make sure nobody gets any damn drixolate on them.’
‘Understood, Sir.’
Having issued his orders, Millet entered the ship to call Boss.
Chapter 95
Boss listened to what Millet had to say, then said, ‘My gut tells me they’re alive, at least for the time being. The trouble is, we have no idea where the hell they’re heading.’
Millet said, ‘Their centre of operations has to be somewhere. Why is it we can never nail them down?’
‘They’re geared up for mobility. So far we have located thirteen planets they have worked out of. Unpopulated planets they can set up processing and come and go unseen. Once in a while we get lucky and do some serious damage.’
Millet said, ‘That’s just body shots. We need to hit their head. Sir. There’s no point in us sitting on our backsides here. Shall we come home?’
‘Yes. But take your time. If we get wind of where they’re heading, I want you in space, ready to respond.’
‘Understood. We’ll mop up here and be on our way in a couple of hours.’
Once the drixolate operation had been thoroughly destroyed, the four ships were away again. Millet ordered another sweep of the planet for human life, to double check Casey and Raven hadn’t been missed on the first sweep. As he expected, nothing was found. If Raven and Casey weren’t on the runners’ ship, it meant they were dead and their bodies would probably never be discovered. They went out of orbit, on a slow course for home.
Chapter 96
‘How are DSI going to track us down?’ whispered Casey. She had given up fighting the webbing that bound her.
‘They can’t. I’m guessing the ones running the show won’t be too pleased with these people. We’re here as a sacrificial offering, to take the heat off these jokers.’
Casey glared at Raven. ‘Oh, thanks for that, Tagg. Makes me feel a whole lot better.’
‘You’re welcome. But at least I finally get to find out what all this is really about.’
Casey said, ‘Money. And lots of it.’
Raven shook his head. ‘That’s a by-product. This thing goes deeper than just business. I’ve suspected as much for some time. At least this way I might get the chance to find out.’
‘Cool. Then at least you’ll die happy.’
‘Not really. Just my curiosity satisfied. Just don’t antagonise them. They think they have the upper hand. They’ll drop their guard eventually.’
Casey waved her bound arms at him and said, ‘They think they have the upper hand?’
‘I’m just lulling them into a false sense of security.’
Casey stared at the three men with the laser rifles. ‘Lull harder then.’
‘DSI run regular courses on lulling. I came second out of the class.’
‘Out of how many?’
‘Two. I was out lulled. Just relax and enjoy breathing.’
* * *
Three full days of deep space flight and a dull routine had developed on the runners’ ship. Casey and Raven were released at regular intervals for ablutions and to eat. Never with less than two rifles aimed at them. Raven knew that trying to escape would not end well, so did all that was asked of him. He was halfway through a basic meal, when he heard a change in the engines tone. They were slowing down.
‘Buckle up. Buckle up. Docking in three minutes.’
To Raven, that was a huge clue. Docking was something done in space, not on a planet. He grinned wryly to himself. It all made sense. The runners headquarters were not on a planet. It was on some kind of space station. Any sign of trouble indicated by their spy or spies in the DSI and they simply flew the station a few million miles away. He metaphorically kicked himself for not seeing that before. So simple, and so obvious. He was taken back to be bound up again, the men buckling up facing him.
‘Did you catch that?’ Raven said. ‘Docking?’
Casey nodded. ‘Gives our chance of being found going from slim to zero.’
Chapter 97
The station was a double doughnut. The ship docked in the centre of it, next to five other ships. The runners had made the delivery but it was up to the well-oiled machine in the station to unload. Corey wasted no time in escorting Raven and Casey off the ship. Both prisoners were impressed with the scale of the operation. There was a hum from the station’s generators and another hum of energy from the scores of people making the whole organisation work.
‘Impressive,’ admitted Raven.
Corey said, ‘Don’t get too comfortable, Raven. How long you two live depends on the mood of the Masters. I just hope I get the pleasure of killing you both.’
‘And I thought we were getting along so well.’
The gravity on the station was light, but sufficient to keep things from floating around. The doughnuts had an internal diameter of ten yards, enough for electric vehicles to have two tracks, one clockwise, the other anticlockwise. Raven counted at least six races of people, mostly young to middle-aged, some from planets where conditions had the human appearance to be noticeably different. Still considered human, however. The small orange hairless ones were new to him, though.
‘Interplanetary,’ said Casey, reading his thoughts.
A vehicle with two seats at the front and a flat platform at the back, loaded with the drixolate, hummed passed them. The orange driver glanced suspiciously at the prisoners as he drove by.
Corey said, ‘You two. In here.’
Corey touched a sensor and a door hissed open. The lights came on as Raven and Casey entered the room. It was bare; totally devoid of furniture.
‘Hmm. A little plain for my taste,’ said Raven. ‘Does it have an en-suite?’
His reply was the door closing behind them, Corey gone.
Casey said, ‘Are you still lulling?’
‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’
Raven was examining a ventilation vent. Perhaps a baby could crawl through it. Grown-ups had no chance. A detailed inspection of the room indicated nothing to make a weapon out of. Corey had selected well. The only luxuries were a sink and a toilet, both steel, fused to the walls and floor in one corner, no separation by screening for privacy. Casey waved her hand over the water outlet sensor, and cold water ran for a few seconds, stopping automatically. She tried again, collecting a little water in her hands, drinking that down. Raven followed her lead and also drank. Then he stretched out on the cold steel floor and closed his eyes.
Chapter 98
They came for Casey first. Two guards with rifles. Raven stood up to go with her but was pushed back. Casey looked back at him, fear in her eyes.
‘Tagg?’
‘Just don’t make them angry.’
He watched her be escorted away, the door closing. ‘Please, God. Don’t let them hurt her.’
It was torture for him, sitting on the hard, cold steel floor, trying not to think of horrible things happening to Karma Casey. Hours seemed to drag by, but he was sure not as much time had gone as he’d imagined. Just when he was at screaming point, the door opened again. Casey was there, between the two guards. He breathed a sigh of relief that she appeared un-harmed.
‘Karma. Are you ok? Did they…?’
Before she could answer, Casey was pushed inside, and he was pushed out of the room. The doughnut was still a busy place, all manner of people in the same grey uniforms, unsmiling, going about their business. They came to one of the corridors that connected one doughnut ring to the other, and Raven was marched along it. The second doughnut was a similar hive of activity as the other; unsmiling, serious people of many colours and shap
es. Most hardly gave him and the guards a second glance.
A transporter hummed to a halt a few yards in front of him, and the passenger opened a double door, standing aside to let the driver enter with the load of cubes. Raven caught a glimpse inside, and he could see ton after ton of precisely stacked cubes of drixolate. The sight made him shudder, then the door closed, and he and the guards walked on.
The next thing they saw, made Raven gasp. The robot stood eight feet tall. Basically humanoid in shape, it stood like a silvery metal sentinel before a large door. It looked at Raven, who flinched when a blue band of light came from its eyes and scanned him from head to foot.
The light went out, the robot stood aside and the door opened. The guards did not follow Raven into the room, and as the door closed behind him, he was plunged into semi-darkness. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he could see a huge wall of thick, transparent material that perfectly dissected the large room. The tank was filled with a dark green, bubbling liquid. And something else!
Chapter 99
Captain Armstrong had her own opinions about most things, the disappearance of Raven and Casey being no exception. But despite her mannish looks and her no BS personality, she was sensitive enough to understand what Joy Dainty was going through.
‘You know something?’ said Armstrong. ‘That man of yours is pretty damn useful. I’m blown away with what the two of them achieved.’
‘What? Getting captured by drixolate runners?’
Armstrong shook her head. ‘Think about it. They survive a massive crash, then, I’m guessing unarmed, they go after the bad guys. Between them, they completely decimate a drixolate operation, torching acres of plants, killing several runners. Probably stuff we don’t even know about. Who knows what other things they did, or how they survived to do it. Be proud, Joy. I would be.’
‘You make it sound like a eulogy to be read out at their funerals.’
‘No, Joy. I’m just saying, they’ve done more in a few days than others achieve in a lifetime. Be proud.’
